My colleagues and I have encountered several problems with printing
and fonts in using the Unix and Windows versions of 3.0. We are
interested to know in each case if these are known bugs, problems with
our installation of the program, problems with our use of the program,
or what-have-you, and if there is anything we can to to fix or work
around the problem. I cannot find anything relevant in the FAQs at
http://www.wri.com/support/.
1) [Windows? and Unix] On our Unix systems and on 1 of the 2 PCs I
work with, input cells do not print in boldface; they look identical
to output cells. More precisely, we get plain Courier rather than
bold Courier on the printed page, whatever type of cell we use bold
Courier in. The PCs on which I work are more or less identical, but
the one for which I am able to get bold Courier is attached to an HP
LaserJet 4MV while the one for which I am not able to get bold Courier
is attached to an HP DeskJet 855C, so perhaps that is the deciding
factor. On our Unix systems we print to a PostScript file and are
definitely not getting bold Courier, regardless of the printer.
Courier is not the only font so afflicted, but it seems to be the most
important one.
2) [Windows and Unix] It seems that the type of font selected for
input and output cells in the style sheet for a notebook is irrelevant
with the default settings--they show up as Courier on the screen and
on the printed page unless we go through and change the font by hand
in each cell. This is problematic for us mainly in conjunction with
item (1) above--we have nothing against Courier if we can make it
print properly. We observe that the style sheet font is used
automatically if we set DefaultInputFormatType to TraditionalForm, but
this has other side effects that seem undesirable to us.
3) [Unix only] For some notebooks, when we print from the Unix version
lines in input and text cells are not wrapped correctly, resulting in
text running off the right margin of the page. We find that we can
correct this problem by changing PageWidth from WindowWidth to
PaperWidth in the Option Inspector, but on the other hand this is not
necessary for all of our notebooks so it seems that the root of the
problem is elsewhere.
4) [Unix only?] For some notebooks, page numbers are not printed after
a certain point in the notebook. Subsequent attempts to print the
same notebook result in no page numbers at all, unless we quit and
restart Mathematica. This happens in the Unix version but I have not
confirmed whether or not it happens in the Windows version.
5) [Windows only] If I open and close the Format|Choose Font... dialog
box, then any subsequent attempts to print a notebook hang the
program, whether or not I actually changed anything in the dialog box.
This happens on both PCs I work with.
6) [Windows and Unix?] Certain standard type sizes seem to be
unavailable in certain contexts. For instance, on the PC I am
currently working with, I cannot get 12-point Courier on the printed
page; 10-point Courier is substituted. On the screen, I cannot get
14-point Courier; 12-point Courier is substituted. The substitution
is done silently; the only way I can tell it has happened is by visual
comparison.
--
Brian R. Hunt
bhunt at ipst.umd.edu